Started with 5 directions from the Pinterest mood board: Ironworks (dark industrial), Matchbox (warm nostalgic), Torque (balanced), Patina (earthy), Redline (bold graphic). All rust/orange-forward.
Grease
Rust
Brass
Indigo
Cream
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Ironworks — darkest
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Matchbox — warmest
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Redline — boldest
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Talia explored Coolors independently — gravitated toward deep teals (#26688B, #003E69), sage greys (#BEC8C7, #CBCBBD), and warm brown (#64453E). Mixed these with the original palettes into 5 blends.
Key shift: Teal and sage entered the palette. The direction moved from "pure heritage" toward "heritage meets cool workshop."
Teal
Baltic
Rust
Brown
Sage
Bone
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Deep Water Workshop
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Talia decided the orange/rust felt too masculine. Wanted something more neutral. Dropped orange entirely. Replaced with copper pipe, dusty rose, aged brass alternatives. Tested teal-dominant, neutral-led, and blue-led versions.
Key shift: Orange gone forever. The palette moved cool. Teal + warm accent became the formula.
Deep
Baltic
Copper
Leather
Sage
Linen
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Talia found wine red (#631F0F) and mauve (#928A8F) on Coolors. But cocoa and bone together reminded her of Caddy luggage. Mauve too purple. Wine red needed to be cooler.
Key shift: Dropped bone and cocoa entirely. Wine red cooled to oxblood. Mauve replaced with cool slate grey.
Baltic
Oxblood
Slate
Sage
Mist
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Oxblood on Sage — the favourite
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Baltic Deep on Mist
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Expert analysis: something felt off because there was no true dark anchor. Tested warm black (#1C1B1A), cool ink-black (#171A1C), brighter oxblood (#5C2530), sage-as-pop (#A8C8C4), and a verdigris pop (#5B9E95). Also tested whether the navy should be the hero.
Key shift: Dark anchor confirmed as necessary. Near-black #1D0A0A chosen. Yellow pop entered from Talia's Coolors exploration.
Black
Baltic
Oxblood
Slate
Sage
Mist
Verdigris
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Tested 5 hero candidates on a spectrum from sage (#BBCFCE) to ice blue (#DEEEFF). Plus a wild card: navy as hero with yellow pop nozzle cap. Crown Affair concern raised — they own a similar sage. Conclusion: sage is different enough in this pairing context (mechanic vs clean-girl). Dusty navy (#3C547F) replaced the darker baltic as primary.
Key shift: Sage confirmed as hero. Navy confirmed as logo colour. Yellow from Coolors confirmed as pop.
Sage
Seafoam
Steel
Ice
Navy
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Sage — chosen hero
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Navy wild card
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7 colours confirmed. Dashboard restyled. All exploration files archived. Oxblood on sage is the signature combination.
Sage
Navy
Oxblood
Black
Grey
Mist
Yellow
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Signature: Oxblood on Sage
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Dashboard v2.0